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From the north to the south, a newly wrapped LRT car will be sending a moving symbol of peace and a powerful message through the heart of the city — gang culture is not Cree culture.
On Monday morning at Clareview station, the Maskwacis Cree Tribal Council unveiled a new effort to decrease gang and gun violence in the form of an LRT wrap with various Cree words promoting a common theme — peace. As the car travels through the city of Edmonton, the trbial council said it hopes the message will “steer First Nations youth away from the dangers of gang involvement and toward a path of community connection and love.”
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The campaign features Cree syllabics for the words love, peace, kindness, warrior, resilience and friend. The billboards also have the Cree principles of wahkôtowin and sihtoskâtowin, the former meaning the interconnectivity in relationships that stress the value of reciprocity, and the latter meaning the importance of community in collective success.
Some representatives of the first nations that make up the Maskwacis Cree Tribal Council, including Ermineskin, Samson Cree, and Louis Bull Tribe First Nations, spoke at Monday’s event. Other speakers and attendees included Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, Edmonton-West Henday NDP MLA Brooks Arcand-Paul, and Edmonton-Rutherford NDP MLA Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse.
“We’re all trying to fight for our kids’ attention, and so today, that’s why this is so important,” said Samson Cree Nation Chief Vernon Saddleback.
The campaign was made possible by the Pattison Outdoor’s Elevating Voices Program, the Young Warriors Program and the iHuman Youth Society, who helped design the billboards.
“With these signs going up, it’s going to come out more — more awareness for it. So this is something that I’m glad is happening,” said Ermineskin Cree Nation Coun. Craig Makinaw.
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As the presentation went on, the trains and passengers continued to flow in and out of Clareview station. It was a testament to the impact that the campaign can have, purely on the visibility of the cars. Sohi touched on the station’s traffic volume in his remarks about the initiative.
“This station sees hundreds and hundreds of people every day that walk through these corridors, and they also see what the impact of gang and guns can have on people — on young people and on the community. Now they will see these messages,” Sohi said.
“The beautiful part of this is that people will be able to connect back to culture, and culture immediately provides support.”
In the bustling LRT platform, Leroy Bull of the Louis Bull Tribe spoke passionately about his own experiences battling the difficult pull of violence, addiction and loss, and the solace he found in his culture that has helped him stay sober for a decade.
“It’s such an honor to have our Cree language in Edmonton, like, oh my goodness, I wish it would have had this a long time ago. And this is part of our culture. This is what was taken away from us. This is what we lost,” said Bull.
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